Director, Nigel Cole Starring: Sally Dawkins, Bob Hoskins, Miranda Richardson

Made In Dagenham definitely ticks all the boxes for this year’s end-of-summer feel-good film, providing audiences an opportunity to feel thoroughly proud to be British following the Hollywood Blockbuster season. Starring Indie-Brit gem Sally Dawkins (Happy-go-lucky) as the annoyingly wholesome yet affably relatable Rita O’Grady, this film takes a look at 1960’s England in the midst of economic strife, focussing on the efforts of one particularly feisty working class lass determined to make a difference.

Director Nigel Cole is clearly cashing in on the Billy Elliot/Full Monty genre here in this shamelessly schmaltzy story of class, gender and equality; yet beneath the uber-sentimental, super-feminist diatribe there is something undeniably heart-warming about this film. The historical importance at the centre of the film is, of course, irrefutable, and therefore you can’t help feeling that twinge of national pride, despite Dawkins’ clichéd pep talks and Bob Hoskins’ sickeningly wholesome portrayal of all-round nice guy Albert. The plot bumbles along quite nicely, with a particularly poignant moment in the last half, creating, for me at least, that level of emotional involvement that is so familiar in other such patriotic British films.

The supporting cast provide the real heart of this film, however; Rita’s entourage of girls are charming and sassy throughout, and prove the saving grace when Rita’s ‘paradigm of virtue’ innocence becomes a little too much. The interplay between Rita and her useless but well-meaning husband Eddie (Daniel Mays) is touching, as is her rocky relationship with long-suffering best friend, Connie (played flawlessly by Geraldine James). Miranda Richardson too is perfectly cast as “fiery redhead” Barbara Castle, who, with a slightly overzealous use of “artistic license”, Cole presents as something of a mascot to the cause – hmm. A little naughty, considering the historical relevance of the issue, but Cole blithely reworks the “facts” of such as gruelling economic crisis in order to make this perky, working class hero tale satisfyingly cheery.